WASHINGTON – A lawsuit challenging Alabama’s voter ID law is set for trial next year, but a wave of court decisions is giving hope to voting rights activists who say the Alabama law should be tossed because it makes it harder for people, especially minorities, to cast ballots.

Federal judges in North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin have ruled that certain state election laws – intended to guard against voter fraud – have gone too far and are unfairly denying people their rightful chance to vote.

None of those court decisions are binding on Alabama. But a lawyer for Alabama residents who were unable to vote in the March presidential primary because they couldn’t get the proper identification say they intend to use the rulings in arguments to the Alabama judge.

“It is important that now two federal appellate courts … are saying states have gone way too far with these kinds of restrictions on voting,” said Deuel Ross with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which filed the challenge to Alabama’s law. “We expect the judge will be made aware of that through our court filings and we expect him to take that into consideration.”

Alabama passed a law in 2011 requiring photo identification to cast a vote, and it has been in effect since the June 2014 primary elections. Republican leaders have hailed it as a necessary deterrent to voter fraud.

Greater Birmingham Ministries and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in December, saying the law is an unfair barrier for voters who lack a valid photo ID and the resources or transportation necessary to get one. A disproportionate number of the people affected are black and Hispanic, they allege.

Secretary of State John Merrill is defending the law, saying there is no proof it has produced racial disparities in voting.

“Notwithstanding the plaintiffs’ half-hearted arguments to the contrary, the complaint contains no allegation actually showing such a disparity exists – let alone that the photo ID law is causing it,” according to written arguments from Merrill. “And that is especially telling given that the law has now been in effect through multiple state elections.”

U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler of Tuscaloosa, who earlier this year refused to suspend the law before the March 1 presidential primary, has scheduled the case for trial in September 2017.

But Ross of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said there is new evidence since the case was filed in December because some of the people his organization represents were unable to vote in that March primary. For example, the case names an 18-year-old from Franklin County, Giovana Ambrosio, who is a U.S. citizen but does not have a driver’s license. The location and hours of operation for offices to obtain an ID are so restrictive that she can’t get there, in part because both her parents work full-time.

“As a result of the racially discriminatory photo ID law, Ms. Ambrosio’s right to vote has been and will continue to be denied or abridged,” the updated lawsuit states.

Under Alabama’s law, there are about 10 forms of identification that qualify, including driver’s licenses, in-state college IDs, military IDs, any employee ID issued by a local, state or federal government entity and tribal IDs. The state also provides a free Alabama photo voter ID. Voters who don’t have any of the acceptable IDs can vote a provisional ballot or be allowed to vote if two election officials positively identify the voter in person.

While the out-of-state court decisions have favored voting rights groups in recent weeks, not every voter ID law is the same, and some of those that are less strict have been upheld. But the momentum of the recent rulings shows courts are helping define exactly when a voting law goes from being a fair check against fraud to a discriminatory barrier to legitimate voters, said Richard Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the University of California Irvine School of Law.

“They are certainly happier as voting rights lawyers to have these other cases to point to, but it is not necessarily predictive of what the court will do in the Alabama case,” Hasen said.

Alabama never submitted its voter ID law for federal government approval under the Voting Rights Act, which for more than 45 years was a necessary step to guard against laws that discriminated against minorities. The requirement to get such approval ended in 2013 after a Supreme Court decision, and Alabama implemented its voter ID law soon after the decision.